You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

Taking their name from ‘jouissance’, the French word for ‘high enjoyment’, Jouis are five graduates from Brighton’s Institute Of Modern Music and their music ebbs and flows between jazz, folk, psychedelia and prog.

“Their sounds,” we’re told, “are designed to open your mind and spirit you away to new lucid dimensions.” There’s a lazy, jazzy ambience throughout, even when the lyrics hint at the perils of consumerism (Hyperception) or eco decay (Misty Maker Stomp). With two EPs and a seven-inch single under their belts, the festival favourites enlisted the help of producer Phill Brown (Bob Marley, Led Zeppelin) to record their debut album live to tape. Opener _All That Is And Is One _sets the gently trippy tone, all liquid guitar and sun-dappled shimmer, switching halfway to a more urgent jazz-rock surge with shades of Santana. There are portents of doom amid the hippie, beatific mood on Rain, but it’s the music, not the lyrics, that triumph. Prog fans will especially enjoy the keyboard arpeggio-fest on Universal Goggles. ‘Comfortably drifting along with the tide,’ they swoon on Misty Maker Stomp. That’s the album’s vibe conjured right there.

Paul Lester is the editor of Record Collector. He began freelancing for Melody Maker in the late 80s, and was later made Features Editor. He was a member of the team that launched Uncut Magazine, where he became Deputy Editor. In 2006 he went freelance again and has written for The Guardian, The Times, the Sunday Times, the Telegraph, Classic Rock, Q and the Jewish Chronicle. He has also written books on Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Bjork, The Verve, Gang Of Four, Wire, Lady Gaga, Robbie Williams, the Spice Girls, and Pink.